The Pataki Suicides
by Lauralogan80
Summary: Olga was the first to go . . .
1. Chapter 1

The Pataki Suicides . . .

(A/N: Inspired by the movie The Virgin Suicides)

Olga was the first to go. It was Saturday and Phoebe and Gerald were walking to the Pataki's house to get Helga. Gerald was the one who cam running back to all of us with the news that Olga was dead. He didn't know how, but Phoebe was going to find out and let him know what had happened.

Twenty minutes later Phoebe and Helga showed up. Helga ignored all questions about her sister. She just wanted to play the game.

After the game, she left. She didn't say a thing to Phoebe, or anyone else. Not even me. And she always has something to say to me.

She wasn't in school the next week, and Olga's funeral was on the Thursday. We skipped school to attend. No one had seen or spoken to Helga since Saturday. No one picked up the phone in the house; they didn't leave, except for Bob who went to work. Even Phoebe had been shut out.

"She committed suicide, did you hear?" I heard Rhonda's voice ring out across the cafeteria. "But then, with a sister like Helga, would you blame her?"

"But Olga? She was so . . . so perfect. Why would she do such a thing?"

"It's none of our business. I wish everyone would stop talking about them like this. It's just ever so mean," Lila snapped. Everyone stopped and looked at the redhead. She never snapped or showed anger at anyone. She picked up her tray and walked over towards us and sat down next to Phoebe. "I hope you don't mind," she said quietly.

"I don't mind at all," Phoebe told her smiling.

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Phoebe and Lila walked into the school the next Monday with Helga. She looked somewhat different. Her unibrow was gone, her bow was gone, and her scowl was gone. Instead there was a smiling, laughing girl. No one could believe it. Her sister had died just the week before and she was carrying on as if nothing had happened. She received many glares for this. Rumours even started that her sister hadn't committed suicide, but that Helga had planned it to look that way and had actually killed her.

Which was ludicrous? Helga laughed them off when she heard them.

"Olga's been killing herself for years, football head, she never needed my help," she said to me one day. I couldn't believe it. I knew Helga hadn't liked her sister . . . but this . . . but I saw a look pass between Phoebe and Lila and realised they knew something no one else did. And I wanted to know myself.

"What are you doing this Saturday, anyway?" I asked.

"Nothing. Why?" she questioned, looking suspicious.

"Well, Gerald and I were going to go see Evil Twin VIII and I just figured maybe we should make a night of it and all go. You to Lila," I said smiling at her. She smiled back, and then glanced at Helga.

"Thank-you ever so much for the invite Arnold, but my father and I are bonding this weekend. I think he's feeling just ever so guilty for working so much," she whispered.

I found out that she wasn't lying. Her father and she went to visit some close-living relatives. Phoebe and Gerald spent the whole time ogling and chatting and flirting. Me and Helga walked off and left them to it.

"So how have things been in your house?" I asked her. She stopped and stared at me blankly.

"What do you mean?" she asked. How do you ask someone how everything is after their sister died?

"With everything that has happened, how is everyone coping?" It's the best I could do.

"We're fine," She said and started walking ahead of me. "Let's go on the Ferris wheel," she said looking at the big wheel, with its bright lights. I obliged and followed her. We were quite for a while, with Helga looking down at the ground every now and then.

"I should have chosen something faster," she said regretfully. "And lower,"

"There's the Graviton," I suggested.

"Sounds good to me, football head," she said smiling.

But the smile didn't reach her eyes. Something in her smile, in her face, in her eyes, was missing . . .


	2. Chapter 2

(A/N: I no Own)

"She hung herself you know," Helga said. "In the basement,"

I couldn't believe what she had just said to me.

Two months had passed, and the two of us were sitting on the dock, eating corn dogs.

"Do you know why?" I asked. I couldn't help it.

"Because no one understood what she was going through in life. So she showed them through death," Helga looked down at the water.

I had learned that Olga's death had affected Helga more than anyone had thought. It had changed her. Aged her. She had lost the childhood innocence in her eyes. It was replaced with a wisdom I rarely saw even in old people. It was like Helga had found out something that no one else in the world knew. I wanted to know. But knew I never would . . .

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Helga made her first attempt eight months later. She downed sleeping pills.

I hadn't spoken to her for a few weeks. Lila and Phoebe were shocked. That day she had seemed really happy. She was bouncing around, eyeing up guys, commenting on clothes and things she wanted to get. No one could understand it.

Bob and Miriam took her out of school.

No one ever heard from her after that. Apparently she was sent to a private all-girls school.

When she did finally return home, she didn't come out often. Occasionally we would see her in town, but she was always with her mother or father. As far as we know, they never let her out of their sight. That was why we were all so shocked when Phoebe, Lila and I each received a letter from her. It was inviting us to come over. Gerald came along with Phoebe naturally.

We all went together. Bob and Miriam weren't home, which was odd. The door was unlocked. There was an envelope with our names on it. Phoebe picked it up and opened it, then silently read it. Then dropped it. She raced up the stairs, Gerald right behind her. Then we heard Phoebe scream. I read the letter over Lila's shoulder.

'Hey, guys,

Olga is meeting me there so I'll be fine.

Lots of love,

Helga.'

Gerald came running down the stairs and grabbed the phone.

"We need an ambulance! Our friend is dead or something!" he yelled. He gave the address. Then argued with the woman on the other side.

Lila and I went upstairs. Phoebe was sitting on the floor, staring into the bathroom. Lila went to her, I entered the bathroom.

Water had spilled over the edge of the tub, a slim white arm hung over, and long, dark blonde hair was hanging over the rim. I moved in further.

I don't remember what happened after that, but I do remember a paramedic pulling me away from her. I had her in my arms and was talking to her. Telling her how angry I was with her, asking her how she could do that to herself. Do this to Phoebe and Lila, and me, and Gerald. To her family. That was when I realised something. Today was the 17th. Exactly one year after her sister.

"No one understood what she was going through in life. So she showed them through death," he heard her saying.

Hanging. Sleeping pills. Drowning. I think I understood it now . . .

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Helga was buried next to Olga. I took Helga's old notebooks, the pink ones with poetry filled with love poems dedicated to me. In one I found a letter from Olga addressed to her.

'_Dearest baby sister Helga,_

_It's time. I am going through with the plan. I am suffocating and no one listens. No one seems to understand what I feel. I will make them listen. I will let them know what they have been doing to me. What they have done to you._

_Love, _

_Olga'_

That was all that was there. There was another, different books. Olga was printed on the velvet cover. I opened it and read the life Olga had led.

I read through Helga's. I understood her now.

Unfortunately it was now too late.

Too late to tell her that…

I loved her too…


End file.
